Extension carrier discovery for carrier aggregation

摘要

Two alternative embodiments are disclosed to enable a user equipment to efficiently discover small cells using a secondary carrier. The user equipment has a primary carrier link to a base station. In addition, the user equipment has a secondary carrier link to a network node in a small cell within a macro cell supported by the base station. The small cells are discovered through novel beacon signals or through modified PSS/SSS transmissions.

主权项

1. A method of discovering small cells using a secondary carrier, comprising:
receiving at a user equipment first control signaling from a base station over a primary carrier link, wherein the first control signaling identifies the radio resource allocation for a plurality of beacon signals from the small cells carried over the secondary carrier; receiving at the user equipment the beacon signals in the identified radio resources, wherein the user equipment receives the plurality of beacon signals with reference to a timing information in the primary carrier, the plurality of beacon signals comprising a first beacon signal, identified by the timing information, from a network node in a first small cell; transmitting from the user equipment to the base station an identification of the first small cell responsive to receipt of the first beacon signal; and receiving at the user equipment second control signaling from the base station over the primary carrier, wherein the second control signaling commands the user equipment to establish a secondary carrier link with the network node in the first small cell.